MATERIALS OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN CONFERENCE OF THE RSDLP(b)
"to captivate the masses"..........
. . . "peace without annexations" (fraternization).
What would the Soviet of Workers' Deputies do?
Soviet of Workers' Deputies and Trotskyism?
If the Left wins in Europe (call them [unclear]), then I'm in favor.

MATERIALS
OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN APRIL CONFERENCE
OF THE RSDLP(b)
May 7-12 (April 24-29), 1917

PRELIMINARY DRAFT OF CHANGES TO THE PARTY PROGRAM OF THE R.S.D.R.P.*

At the end of the principled section of the program (after the words: "from the point of view of the proletariat") insert:

World capitalism has reached at the present time—approximately since the beginning of the 20th century—the stage of imperialism. Imperialism, or the era of Financial Capital, is so highly developed capitalist economy in which monopolistic associations of capitalists—syndicates, cartels, trusts—have acquired decisive significance, banking capital of enormous concentration has merged with industrial capital, the export of capital to foreign countries has developed on a very large scale, the entire world has already been divided territorially among the wealthiest countries, and the economic division of the world has begun among international trusts.

Imperialist wars—that is, wars for dominion over the world, for markets for banking capital, for the strangulation of small and weak peoples—are inevitable given such a state of affairs. And the first great imperialist war of 1914-1917 is precisely such a war.

Both the extraordinarily high stage of development of world capitalism in general, and the replacement of free competition by monopolistic capitalism, and the completeness of the division of the world, and the preparation by banks, as well as by associations of capitalists, of the apparatus for public regulation of the process of production and distribution of products, and the horrors, calamities, ruin, and degeneration produced by imperialist war—all this makes the present stage of development (of capitalism) an era of proletarian, socialist revolution.

This era has begun.

Only proletarian, socialist revolution can extricate humanity from the impasse created by imperialism and imperialist wars. Whatever the difficulties of revolution and (possible) temporary failures of it or waves of counter-revolution—the ultimate victory of the proletariat is inevitable.

It is therefore placed on the agenda of the current era, in accordance with objective conditions, the comprehensive (immediate) preparation of the proletariat for revolution and decisive rupture with that bourgeois distortion of socialism which has prevailed in the official social-democratic parties in the form of social-chauvinism (that is, socialism in words, chauvinism in deeds, or the camouflaging with the slogan of "defense of the fatherland" of the defense of capitalist interests in imperialist wars), as well as in the form of the "center" tendency (that is, unprincipled, helpless vacillation between social-chauvinism and revolutionary-internationalist proletarian struggle) [to the conquest of political power for the immediate implementation of economic and political measures constituting the content of socialist revolution].

(The accomplishment of this task, requiring the most complete confidence, the closest fraternal union and direct unity of revolutionary action of the working class of all advanced countries, is unachievable without immediate and principled rupture with that bourgeois distortion of socialism which [has taken precedence] has triumphed among the top ranks of the vast majority of Official social-democratic parties. Such a distortion is, on one hand, the tendency of social-chauvinism, socialism in words, chauvinism in deeds, the camouflaging with the slogan of "defense of the fatherland" of the defense of the predatory interests of "one's own" national bourgeoisie, and on the other hand the equally widespread and international [tendency] so-called "center" tendency, standing for unity with social-chauvinists, for the preservation or correction of the bankrupt Second International, vacillating between social-chauvinism and the revolutionary-internationalist struggle of the proletariat for the realization of the socialist order.)

[The experience of the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917, which created Soviets of Workers' Deputies and a number of similar organizations, thereby confirmed the experience of the Paris Commune, consisting in the fact that the proletariat needs a state for the transitional period to socialism, but this state should not be a state of the ordinary type, but the direct mass and universal organization of armed workers, replacing the former organs of management: standing army, police, and bureaucracy. The clarification to the proletariat of the tasks of such a state—capable both of consolidating the achievements of revolution in general, and of ensuring the most peaceful and orderly transition to socialism—should constitute one of the main tasks of the proletarian party alongside the struggle against those who have distorted Marxism and betrayed socialism on the question of the dictatorship of the proletariat, representatives of the bankrupt Second International of 1889-1914.

Monopolistic capitalism, which during the war transforms with particular speed in a number of advanced countries into state-monopolistic capitalism, means the gigantic socialization of production and consequently the complete preparation of objective conditions for the creation of socialist society.]

In the minimum program, delete the entire beginning (from the words: "On the path" and up to § 1) and replace it with the following:

At the moment Russia is experiencing [before the party], when the Temporary Government, belonging to the class of landlords and capitalists** and enjoying the confidence—though necessarily unstable—of broad masses of petty-bourgeois population, has obligated itself to convene a Constituent Assembly—there stands before the proletarian party the immediate task of struggle for a state system that would best ensure both economic development and the rights of the people in general, and in particular the possibility of the easiest (painless) transition to socialism.

The Party struggles and helps the popular masses immediately to struggle for a democratic republic, [implementing it] (beginning to implement freedoms) through the spontaneous organization of masses (from below) and striving thereby to create not a bourgeois-parliamentary republic, in which [there remain the old organs of oppression of the masses: police, standing army, bureaucracy] (the domination of capitalists is particularly secured, [and violence is secured] and the possibility of applying violence against the masses [through] by means of the preservation of the old organs of oppression of the masses: police, standing army, bureaucracy)—but rather a more democratic proletarian-peasant republic, in which it is impossible, impermissible to preserve these organs of oppression, and state power belongs directly to the armed workers and peasants themselves [universally].

§ 1**. All supreme power in the state should belong to representatives of the people, elected and removable at any time by the people and constituting one people's assembly, one chamber.

§ 2—add:

proportional representation in all elections; removability of all without exception delegates and elected persons at any time by decision of the majority of their electors.

§ 3—add:

the absence of any supervision or control from above over the decisions and actions of regional and local self-government.

§ 9 change as follows:

the right of free separation and of forming its own state for all nations entering the composition of the state. The republic of the Russian people should attract other peoples or nationalities to itself not by violence, but exclusively by voluntary agreement to form a common state. The unity and fraternal union of workers of all countries are incompatible with either direct or indirect violence against other peoples.

§ 11—change as follows:

the electability of judges and all* officials, both in the civil service and in the army, by the people; the removability of all of them at any time by decision of the majority of their electors; payment to all officials of the state not exceeding the pay of a good worker: 300-500 rubles, depending on the number of family members and their earnings; absolute prohibition for officials to combine their salary with income from other sources*.

§ 12—[add] change as follows:

replacement of police and standing army by universal armament of the people: workers and employees must receive payment from capitalists for time devoted to public service in the universal militia.

*
§ 14 political section, § 5 and other economic sections should be, like the entire economic section, reviewed separately by commissions from workers in the trade-union movement and educators [entering]

After the Finance section of the program (after the words: "on incomes and inheritance") insert:

The high stage of development of capitalism already achieved in banking and in cartelized branches of industry, on the one hand, and on the other hand the devastation created by imperialist war and everywhere demanding state and public control over production and distribution of the most important products, impels the party to demand [immediate] nationalization of banks, syndicates, trusts, etc.

The agrarian program should be replaced by an agrarian resolution (see its text separately* or reworked in accordance with it).

Delete entirely the end of the program (the last two paragraphs, from the words: "Striving to achieve")).**

*See below, p. 48 of the Collection. Ed.
**In the "Draft of Changes," this paragraph is replaced by an extensive paragraph:
"Formulate the agrarian program as follows:
Keep the beginning as before (from the words: 'In order to eliminate the remnants' to the words: 'the party demands'), and replace the continuation as follows:
1) struggles with all its might for the immediate and complete confiscation of all landlord lands in Russia as well as appanage, church, cabinet and other lands);
2) comes out decisively for the immediate transition of all lands into the hands of the peasantry, organized in Soviets of Peasants' Deputies or in other, truly fully democratically elected and completely independent of landlords and officials organs of local self-government;
3) demands the nationalization of all lands in the state; meaning the transfer of property rights to all lands into the hands of the state, nationalization transfers the right of disposition over land into the hands of local democratic institutions;
4) supports the initiative of those peasant committees which in a number of localities of Russia are transferring landlord livestock and equipment into the hands of the peasantry organized in these committees for publicly-regulated use in the cultivation of all lands;
5) advises the rural proletariat and semi-proletariat to strive for the formation from each landlord estate of a sufficiently large model farm, which would be conducted at public expense by Soviets of Deputies of agricultural workers under the guidance of agronomists and with the application of the best technical means.
The party in all cases and in any circumstance of so-called to the end of the paragraph 'exploitation').
Finally, the end of the agrarian program, from the words: 'the party in all cases and in any circumstance of democratic agrarian transformations' to the words: 'any exploitation,' keep as before." Ed.
In the "Draft of Changes": "The entire end." Ed.
There, here inserted: "and to the end." Ed.

To the Program. An Improved Variant*

The proletarian party cannot [limit itself] (limit its strivings) to a bourgeois-parliamentary democratic republic, which everywhere in the world preserves and seeks to perpetuate monarchical organs of oppression of the masses, namely: police, standing army, privileged bureaucracy.

The Party struggles for a more democratic proletarian-peasant republic, in which police and standing army are completely eliminated and replaced by universal armament of the people, universal militia; all officials, without any exception***, become not only elective, but removable at any time at the requirement of the majority of their electors; payment to all without exception officials is determined in an amount not exceeding [good] average pay of a good worker [absolute prohibition for officials to combine their salary with income from other sources]; parliamentary-representative institutions are replaced gradually by councils of representatives of the people (from various classes and professions or from various places), legislating at one and the same time and implementing their laws in practice.

1 At the April conference, a program commission was formed in which two points of view on the revision of the general theoretical section of the program emerged: Lenin's, standing for adding to the old characterization of the development of capitalism (in the 1903 program) a characterization of imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism, as the beginning of "an era of proletarian socialist revolution," and the rest of the program commission—A. Lomov, G. Sokolnikov, M. Bogolepov—standing for a complete reworking of the general theoretical section, for the removal from it of the history of the development of commodity production and capitalism and its replacement with a characterization of imperialism and the direct transition to an era of social revolution (see Lenin's criticism of this point of view in Works, vol. XX, p. 297-298, as well as Lenin's article "On the Revision of the Party Program," Works, vol. XXI, p. 295; Lenin's report and speeches at the VII Congress of the party on program questions, Works, vol. XXII, p. 347-305 and report and concluding remarks at the VIII Congress, Works, vol. XXIV, p. 131-156).

By the assignment of the All-Russian April Conference, Lenin issued in June 1917 a pamphlet "Materials on the Revision of the Party Program," Petrograd, 1917 (see Works, vol. XX, p. 287). In this pamphlet Lenin published a "Draft of Changes to the theoretical, political and certain other sections of the program," somewhat different from the "Preliminary Draft of Changes to the RSDLP Program" printed here. Textual variations of the "Preliminary Draft" with the text of the "Draft of Changes" are placed in footnotes.

Further stages of Lenin's development of the party program project see Works, vol. XXII, p. 368-374—"Rough Sketch of a Draft Program"; vol. XXIV, p. 85-108—"Draft Program of the RCP(b)".

RECORD OF REPORTS FROM THE LOCALITIES*

[May 8 (April 25), 1917]

Factual reports:

1) Moscow................
2) Gelendzhik—
3) Railway Depot...
Factory Bel[—]
4) Nizhny Novgorod___
(immediate armistice)...
5) Morshansk
| 35,000 inhabitants
| 28,000 soldiers
57 = Soviet of Workers' Deputies
| 10,000 soldiers
6) Don region
| 132 Soviets of Workers' Deputies [jointly
| 48 Soviets of Soldiers' Deputies
| ~100~
| up to 50,000 | Bolsheviks
5-6 | 5,000 | Mensheviks
for flour

The record was made by Lenin in pencil on notebook sheets with a note on a separate sheet: "To the archives (interesting)". At the top, by an unknown hand in pencil, the inscription was made: "Lenin's Note". Ed.

7) Voronezh:
Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies (S.D.—Bolsheviks and Mensheviks—S.R.)
and food question
AND MILITIA
and 8-hour work day introduced (with great difficulty)
troops rose up against the 8-hour work day
2 shifts of 8 hours
extra eliminated
Insist on unification. I'm for unification only with internationalists, not with Potresov and so on.

I am in principle not opposed, but will it be implemented? Communists instead of social-democrats.

"To march behind the Soviet of Workers' Deputies in Petersburg I will not agree"...

Militia with pay from the factory
32 S.D. Mensheviks and Bolsheviks equally
before the revolution 200

8) Vologda artillery factory___
2,500 workers at factory
9-hour work day and will be 8-hour work day.
Wage: women 1 ruble—2.50
men 1—2—4—4.50
Production did not decrease
Overtime only in exceptional cases

Party intelligentsia did not support us.
28 members of Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies
(Sukhonsky)

Executive Committee
1 S.R.—Internationalist
1 Bolshevik
1 S.D. of undetermined "overly left tendency"—
Peasants count more on our factory than on committees.

Archangelsk: S.D. = Chauvinist.
S.D. group 10 persons (Bolsheviks) before the revolution
9—after
"of blue-blouse origin" ...

Nizhny Novgorod: Saveliev

Tomsk:
Soviet of Soldiers' Deputies guards soldiers on S.R. work

DRAFT RESOLUTION ON THE AGRARIAN QUESTION*

The existence of landlord land ownership in Russia is the material mainstay of the power of serf-owning landlords and a guarantee of the possible restoration of monarchy. This land ownership inevitably condemns the overwhelming mass of Russia's population, the peasantry, to poverty, bondage and degradation, and the entire country to backwardness in all spheres of life.

Peasant land ownership in Russia, both allotment (communal and household) and private (rented and purchased land), from bottom to top, lengthwise and crosswise, is entangled in old, semi-serf-like ties and relationships, the division of peasants into categories inherited from the times of serfdom, scattered holdings and so on and so forth. The necessity of breaking all these outdated and harmful barriers, the necessity of "disencumbering" the land, rebuilding all relationships of land ownership and agriculture in accordance with the new conditions of all-Russian and world-wide economy constitutes the material foundation of the peasantry's strivings toward the nationalization of all lands in the state.

Whatever the petit-bourgeois utopias with which all Populist parties and groups clothe the struggle of the peasant masses against serf-like landlord land ownership and against all serf-like fetters of all land ownership and land use in Russia in general—the struggle itself expresses a fully bourgeois-democratic, [but] unconditionally progressive and economically necessary striving for the decisive breaking of all these fetters.

Land nationalization, being a bourgeois measure, means the greatest possible freedom of class struggle conceivable in capitalist society and freedom of land use from all non-bourgeois appendages. Besides, land nationalization, as the abolition of private property in land, would mean in practice such a mighty blow to private property in all means of production in general that the proletarian party should render every assistance to such a transformation.

On the other hand, the well-to-do peasantry of Russia long ago created elements of a peasant bourgeoisie, and the Stolypin agrarian reform undoubtedly strengthened, multiplied and reinforced these elements. At the other pole of the village, agricultural hired workers, proletarians, and the mass of semi-proletarian peasantry close to them have likewise grown stronger, multiplied and increased.

The more decisively and consistently the breaking and elimination of landlord land ownership occurs, the more decisively and consistently bourgeois-democratic transformation* of Russia in general occurs, the greater and faster will be the development of class struggle of agricultural proletariat against well-to-do peasantry (peasant bourgeoisie).

Depending on whether the urban proletariat will be able to bring the rural proletariat along with it and attach to it the mass of semi-proletarians of the village, or whether this mass will follow the peasant bourgeoisie, inclined toward alliance with Guchkov, Milyukov, capitalists and landlords and toward counter-revolution in general—depending on this will be determined the fate and outcome of the Russian revolution, insofar as the beginning proletarian revolution in Europe does not exert its direct, mighty influence on our country.

Proceeding from such a class position and alignment of forces, the conference resolves:

1) The proletarian party [supports] struggles with all its might for the immediate and complete confiscation of all landlord lands in Russia, (as well as appanage, church, cabinet and other lands).

[3] 2) The party comes out decisively for the immediate transition of all lands into the hands of the peasantry, organized in Soviets of Peasants' Deputies or in other, truly fully democratically elected and completely independent of landlords and officials organs of local self-government.

[2] 3) The proletarian party demands the nationalization of all lands in the state; meaning the transfer of property rights to all lands into the hands of the state, nationalization [should] transmits the right of disposition over land into the hands of local democratic institutions.

4) The party must struggle decisively both against the Temporary Government, which through the lips of Shingarev and through collective statements imposes on the peasants "voluntary agreement with landlords" that is, in fact, giving the reform a landlord character, and threatens peasants with punishment for "self-rule" that is, with the transition to violence by the minority of the population (landlords and capitalists) against the majority—and against the petit-bourgeois vacillation of the majority of Populists and Mensheviks in social-democracy, advising peasants not to take all the land before the Constituent Assembly.

5) The party advises peasants to take the land in an organized manner, under no circumstances permitting the slightest damage to property and taking care to increase production.

6) All general agrarian transformations can be successful and lasting only with the complete democratization of the entire state, that is, on one hand, with the destruction of police, standing army and factually privileged bureaucracy, and on the other hand with the broadest, completely free from supervision and guardianship from above, local self-government.

7) It is necessary immediately and everywhere to begin the separate and independent organization of agricultural proletariat both in the form of Soviets [of Farm Laborers] Deputies of agricultural workers (as well as special Soviets of Deputies of semi-proletarian peasantry), and in the form of organizing proletarian groups or fractions in general Soviets of Peasants' Deputies, in all organs of local and city-wide administration, etc., and so on.

8) The party should support the initiative of those peasant committees which in a number of localities of Russia are transferring landlord livestock and equipment into the hands of the peasantry organized in these committees for [societal] publicly-regulated use in the cultivation of all lands.

[8] 9) The proletarian party should advise the rural proletariat and semi-proletariat to strive for the formation from each landlord estate of a sufficiently large model farm, which would be conducted at public expense by Soviets [of Farm Laborers] Deputies of agricultural workers under the guidance of agronomists and with the application of the best technical means.

On May 11 (April 28), Lenin spoke at the All-Russian Conference as rapporteur on the agrarian question. The draft resolution, compiled by Lenin, was distributed to conference delegates "in the form of proofs" (see Lenin, Works, vol. XX, p. 268). The draft was discussed by the agrarian section of the conference, which "agreed to the proposed draft resolution without fundamental amendments" (there).

The draft resolution on the agrarian question is printed from proof sheets with Lenin's handwritten corrections (see set in bold type; text struck out by Lenin is set in small type in square brackets). Above the title of the document, Lenin wrote: "with those who abstained." On the reverse, by an unknown hand, the note was made: "Appendix No. 2 to Protocol No. 14".

DRAFT RESOLUTION ON THE NATIONAL QUESTION
(ADOPTED BY THE RESOLUTION COMMISSION)*

Policy of national oppression, being an inheritance of autocracy and monarchy, is supported by landlords, capitalists and the petty bourgeoisie in [the interests of strengthening] (the interests of preserving) their class privileges and the division of workers of different nationalities. Contemporary imperialism, intensifying aspirations to subjugate weak peoples, is a new factor in the exacerbation of national oppression.

Insofar as it is achievable in capitalist society to eliminate national oppression, this is possible only with a consistently democratic republican system (and administration) of the state, ensuring complete equality of all nations and languages [abolition of the compulsory state language].

All nations entering the composition of [the state] (Russia) should be recognized the right of free separation and of forming an independent state. Denial of such a right and non-adoption of measures guaranteeing its practical implementation is equivalent to support of the policy of seizure or annexation. Only [such a policy of the proletariat recognition] (the proletariat's recognition) of the right of a nation to separation ensures complete solidarity of workers of different nations and promotes genuinely democratic rapprochement of nations.

[The contemporary] Conflict arising at the present time between Finland and the Russian Temporary Government particularly strikingly demonstrates that denial of the right of free separation [leads] (leads) to [the return of methods of tsarism] the direct continuation of the tsarist policy.

The question of the right of a nation to free separation must not be confused with the question of the expediency of the separation of one or another nation at one or another moment. This latter question the proletarian party must solve in each individual case completely independently, from the point of view of the interests of all social development and the interests of the class struggle of the proletariat for socialism.

The party demands broad regional autonomy, abolition of supervision from above, abolition of the compulsory state language, and the determination of the boundaries of self-governing and autonomous regions on the basis of the account by the local population itself of economic and everyday conditions, national composition of the population, etc.

The proletarian party decisively rejects so-called "cultural-national autonomy," that is, the removal from state jurisdiction of school matters, etc., and their transfer into the hands of a kind of national diets. Workers living in one locality and even working in the same enterprises, this plan* artificially divides according to belonging to one or another "national culture," that is, strengthens the bonds (of workers) with the bourgeois culture of separate nations, [instead of strengthening] whereas the task [of the proletariat] (of social-democracy) consists in strengthening the international culture of the world proletariat.

The party demands the inclusion in the constitution of a fundamental law declaring invalid any privileges of one nation, any violation of the rights of national minorities.

The interests of the working class require the fusion of workers of all nationalities of Russia in unified proletarian organizations, political, trade-union, cooperative-educational, etc. Only such fusion in unified organizations of workers of different nationalities gives the proletariat the possibility of waging a victorious struggle against international capital and against bourgeois nationalism.

On May 12 (April 29), 1917, at the All-Russian Conference, I. V. Stalin spoke on the national question as rapporteur and G. L. Pyatakov as co-rapporteur. I. V. Stalin defended the draft resolution written by Lenin and adopted by the resolution commission, and then by the conference. G. L. Pyatakov presented a draft resolution written in the spirit of "left communism" (denial of the right of nations to self-determination) and adopted by a "special section" on the national question.

As a result of the work of the resolution commission, Lenin made several editorial corrections to the resolution (see enclosed in curved brackets ()). The title and one correction in the text (see footnotes) were written by I. V. Stalin.

At the top of the manuscript of the resolution, by an unknown hand, the note was made: "Resolution of Comrade Stalin. Appendix 3 to Protocol No. 17".

DRAFT RESOLUTION ON THE CURRENT MOMENT*

But it would be the greatest error, and in practice even a complete transition to the side of the bourgeoisie, to deduce from this the necessity of support [of the government of capitalists, or the permissibility of limiting one's activity to the level of the petit bourgeoisie] by the bourgeoisie on the part of the working class, or the necessity of limiting one's activity within the bounds acceptable to the petit bourgeoisie, or the refusal of the leading role of the proletariat in explaining to the people the urgency of a number of practically ripened steps toward socialism.

Such steps are, firstly, the nationalization of land. [Both the objective situation of land ownership in Russia and the rapid growth of consciousness among peasants, everywhere coming to the conviction of the necessity of such a transformation, serves as a guarantee of its importance.] Such a measure, not directly going beyond the bounds of the bourgeois system, would at the same time be a mighty blow to private property in means of production and [inevitable] thereby would strengthen the influence of the socialist proletariat on the semi-proletarians of the village [and on certain strata of the petit bourgeoisie].

Such measures are, secondly, the fusion of all banks into one state-wide bank, then the transfer into the hands of the state of all insurance business and all the largest syndicates of capitalists, syndicates, some of which were already [standing (for example, the syndicate of sugar manufacturers) under the control of the landlord and capitalist state.]

Such measures are further the establishment of state control over all banks, with their unification in a single [state-wide] central bank, as well as over insurance institutions and the largest syndicates of capitalists (for example, the syndicate of sugar manufacturers, Produgol, Prodamet, etc.) with gradual transition to a more just, [income-based] progressive taxation of incomes [according to norms capable] and property. Such measures are economically fully ripe [practically...*] technically absolutely implementable immediately, politically can encounter the support of the overwhelming majority of peasants, [profiting] profiting from these transformations in all respects.

Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' [and] Peasants' and other Deputies, now covering Russia with an increasingly dense network, could also** alongside the indicated measures proceed to the implementation of universal labor obligation, since the character of these institutions guarantees, on the one hand, the transition to all these new transformations only as the conscious, firm assimilation of their practical necessity by the overwhelming majority of the people, and on the other hand the character of these institutions guarantees not a police-bureaucratic implementation of transformations, but the voluntary participation of organized and armed masses of the proletariat and peasantry in the regulation of their own economy.

All the indicated and similar measures can and should be not only discussed and prepared for [implementation] carrying out on a nationwide scale on condition of the transfer of all power to the proletariat and semi-proletariat, but also implemented by local revolutionary organs of universal power, when the opportunity presents itself.

In the implementation of the named measures extraordinary circumspection and caution are necessary, the conquest of a firm majority of the population and its conscious conviction of the practical [implementability] readiness of one or another measure, but it is precisely in this direction that the attention and efforts of the conscious vanguard of the working masses should be directed, obliged to help the peasant masses find a way out of the devastation that has been created.

On May 7 (April 24), Lenin spoke at the All-Russian Conference with a report on the current moment. Noting the broad scope of the theme, Lenin divides it into three major questions: 1) assessment of the political situation in Russia; 2) attitude toward war; and 3) the international situation. "I have to present to you a draft resolution on all these questions, but with the caveat that in view of the extreme shortage of forces on our part, as well as in view of the political crisis that has arisen here in Petrograd, we were unable not only to discuss the resolution, but also to send it to the localities in good time. Thus, I repeat, these are only preliminary drafts facilitating the work in the commission and allowing it to concentrate on some of the most essential questions" (Works, vol. XX, p. 240).

The part of the resolution on the current moment printed here is part of the first of those three "preliminary draft" resolutions of which Lenin speaks.

The document is a copy typed on a typewriter. Only the end of the copy has been preserved, beginning with page 3. In this copy, Lenin made a series of corrections by hand, in ink, chemical and ordinary pencils. Apparently these corrections were made as a result of the work of the resolution commission, elected at the same conference session and composed of 7 persons: Lenin, Stalin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bubnov, Baturin, Nogtin.

Lenin's hand corrections are printed in bold type, the text struck out by him is in small type. The variation with the resolution adopted by the conference and printed in No. 13 of "Soldiers' Truth" is noted in a footnote.

ORDER OF PUBLICATION OF RESOLUTIONS OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN APRIL CONFERENCE

[May 13 (April 30) or May 14, 1917]

1) on war—
2) on the Temporary Government
(corrections)*

3) Agrarian
4) on [unclear]
5) On coalition ministry
printed in "Pravda"

+
+

In the manuscript against this point, by an unknown hand, the note was made: "take in the secretariat"; further added: "Corrections made in No. 42. G. Bokiy". Ed.